Meridian DSP5200SE HC/VC Active Centre Channel Speaker The DSP5200SE HC is the centre channel partner for the DSP5200SE floorstanding loudspeaker — sharing its 2½-way driver architecture, its beryllium dome tweeter, its three-amplifier active system, and its Special Edition DSP electronics. In a home cinema system built around DSP5200SE mains, the HC/VC completes the front soundstage with the same acoustic character and the same engineering standard, rather than introducing a weaker link where the majority of the sound is concentrated. Available in HC (Horizontal Centre) for placement beneath a screen, and VC (Vertical Centre) for installations where room geometry requires vertical orientation. Both variants share identical electronics and driver specifications. Built by hand in the UK. See the full Meridian range. The 2½-Way Architecture The DSP5200SE HC uses the same three-driver, 2½-way design as the DSP5200SE floorstander. A 25mm beryllium dome tweeter with silver voice-coil handles treble. One 160mm polypropylene long-throw mid/bass driver covers the rest of the frequency range. The second 160mm driver is dedicated entirely to low-frequency bass. This arrangement delivers the imaging purity of a single treble-to-mid crossover while doubling the bass-handling capability — the same logic that makes the floorstander perform so far above its cabinet size, now in a horizontal or vertical centre cabinet. Three Class-AB amplifiers — each rated at 75 watts, 225 watts total — are matched to their respective drivers. There is no passive crossover and no shared power supply between driver channels. Frequency response runs from 35Hz to over 32kHz in room. Peak SPL is 116dB at one metre. Distortion is typically below 0.02%. Image Elevation Positioning a centre channel below a large screen creates the same geometry problem in every installation: the sound origin and the image do not align. Meridian's Image Elevation technology raises the perceived sound image psychoacoustically to the centre of the screen, anchoring dialogue and on-screen effects to the right position. The practical result is an installation that feels acoustically correct — which, for extended film watching, matters considerably. DSP Technologies The DSP5200SE HC implements nine Meridian signal processing technologies: Image Elevation, Full Frequency Alignment, Bespoke Signal Mapping, E3 Bass, Q-Sync, True Time, True Link, Pro-Active Bass, and Pro-Active Thermal. Each is designed to contribute to a specific aspect of the loudspeaker's performance — from timing coherence and bass extension to driver protection and low-level clarity. Technical Specifications Tweeter 25mm beryllium dome, silver voice-coil, short-horn Mid/bass drivers 2 × 160mm polypropylene long-throw (1 mid/bass, 1 dedicated bass) Design 2½-way active Amplification 3 × 75W (225W total) Peak SPL 116dB @ 1m Frequency response 35Hz – over 32kHz (±3dB in room) Distortion Typically
